Thanks again.

This is what I want to do since the recovery files aren't being picked up when I open Word. I can search for them and sure enough there is one there that conforms to the rules that you gave me, but I cannot open it so it isn't useful. Is there a known problem with the recovery process in Office XP?

It looks like the only option is to save on close there is no timed option. That is some help if it saves when Win update tromps through killing everything I have it set to notify me and let me tell it when to do the updates but it still rages through once in a while. Is there any way to turn it off entirely so I can go look for updates now and then like once a week or whenever instead of taking a chance that it will come along and destroy whatever I happen to be working on at the time that it in it's infinite wisdom decides that i have to have some update?

Word perfect stores the snapshots on top of each other so they don't fill up the hard drive. It seems like that's the sensible way to do it.

Thanks again.